30 (Tigers); 27 (Twins)

The White Sox continued to defy the odds in the wrong way. Going into the game against Boston, the Sox were 53-8 when they outhit the opponent, 47-4 when they held the other team to under four runs, 58-10 when they get a quality start, 40-17 when their starter lasts at least seven innings, 21-1 when their starter makes it through eight innings, and a perfect 20-0 when giving up fewer than two runs. Well, all of those things happened in yesterday's game, as Javier Vazquez -- yes, Javier Vazquez -- painted a complete-game, one-run, three-hit masterpiece, yet the (Very) Pale Hose lost 1-0 to the Red Sox. That's two excellent starting pitching efforts in a row that their once dominant offense has wasted. Hitting coach Greg Walker needs to work some magic starting now.

With the loss, the Sox fell to 1.5 games behind the victorious Twins in the Wild Card race and failed to pick up ground on the faltering Tigers, who lost yesterday as well. The Magic Number against Detroit drops to 30, but remains 27 versus the Twins. And the season is dwindling down to an uncomfortably few number of games for a team trying to catch up. There's only one solution: Just win, baby.